Texting On T9
"Book" and "cool" were the same keystrokes, and it always chose wrong.
Predictive text turned nine keys into a keyboard and created an entire dialect of abbreviations.
Texting under the desk without looking was a skill people genuinely had. So was knowing which words T9 refused to learn.
Ten pence a message meant every text was edited down. The abbreviations were economic, not lazy.
Cost back then
10p a message
Goes for now
Free, and nobody proofreads anything
